Officer shot in Colton improving

COLTON -- A Chino prison corrections officer, who police believe was shot in the head by former inmate at that prison, remained in intensive care at a hospital Monday, but police say his condition has improved.

The 52-year-old California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officer - whose name has not been released - was recovering in the Intensive Care Unit at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he was in critical condition Friday.

Police plan to submit their investigative report today to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office for consideration of criminal charges.

The suspects - Christopher Marquez, 24, and Anthony Gomez Jr. 31, both of Riverside - have been behind bars since Friday on suspicion of attempted murder and conspiracy and are scheduled to be arraigned today in San Bernardino Superior Court.

The officer was pumping gas at a Shell gas station in the 2700 block of Iowa Avenue in Colton shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday when he was shot. Colton police officers arrived and rushed the man into their patrol car to the hospital before paramedics arrived.

Authorities have attributed that action to saving his life.

Riverside police captured the suspects about three hours later in Riverside.

A motive in the shooting was not released by police, and state officials have declined to comment on whether the officer knew the suspects through his job at California Institution for Men, where Gomez was housed during his prison term.

Court records show that Gomez was sentenced to 11 years in Chino in 2001 for a robbery and assault with a deadly weapon that occurred in July 2000.

The judge ordered him sent to the Chino prison, but he was released on parole in March 2012. His parole ended in March of this year.